Smart Boy concept merges Android and Nintendo together

Nintendo might not be the prestigious company it was when the Wii launched, but it games are still adored by millions worldwide on Wii U and 3DS. A new piece of concept art by visual artist Pierre Cerveau shows a potential next move for Nintendo, with the Smart Boy.

The Smart Boy is a return in many ways to the old aesthetic of the Game Boy, but instead of being a large hunk of plastic, it is revamped as a polycarbonate Android device.

Cerveau captures perfectly the grayish colour and design of the Game Boy with the new concept, along with some nifty features for the Smart Boy. Featuring a USB Type-C and 3.5mm audio jack on the side (bad place to put an audio jack), the Smart Boy can connect to the Game Bat, an accessory that has D-Pad, analogue stick and Y, H, B, R buttons.

In the concept, the Smart Boy has a modular part capable of swapping a 16MP camera for 128GB of storage for additional battery. The Game Bat also comes with additional battery life, for extra time playing games on the Smart Boy.

In Cerveau’s concept, the Smart Boy runs on stock Android, but has an 8-bit version for increased battery life. This reduces the colour saturation and pixel density, providing a few more hours for the user.

It is an interesting concept, considering Nintendo’s recent mobile partnership with DeNA. Bringing mobile games to Android and iOS should be the number one priority for DeNA, with classics like Mario, Zelda alongside new games like Splatoon and Pikmin bringing millions of Nintendo fans to two huge platforms.

Nintendo is working on the NX console for 2016 launch, almost dropping the Wii U entirely. We wonder how far Nintendo is willing to go with the next console to win back customers, and whether it is thinking of a mobile device any time in the future.